The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-06-22
Roaming Palatkans.

With the arrival of the summer sea-
son many left us to seek health or diver
sion elsewhere. Naturally, we dislike
being left-although we know Palatka is
cooler than New York-although we
have seaside resorts whose gentle breezes
are more balmy than those of Newport
or Atlantic City-even though we envy
not those who ''rusticate" on relatives
in larger cities, yet we feel lonesome,
and the mails which bring missives
from mugwumps who are RECALLING them
selves again on their native beans,
others who grow fat on bluegrass pas
lures, are matters of little consolation in
a hot office where piles of work become
bugbears to the wearied eye.
In this frame of mind the woes of the
traveller furnish consolatory reflection to
the tired worker and a broad grin light
ems his face even as in the winter time.
Did not one flee from Key West and
land in quarantine? Was he not kept i'm
barn with some miserable companions
and fed on the bacon his soul loathed:
Was he not forbidden to seek the cool
shades of the waving woods or air his
fumigated surroundings by stroll on the
beach? And if this lasted ten days and
he then lived in momentary terror of
fresh arrest till he reached Palatka, shall
we not rejoice that we are at home?
And can we not sympathize with poor
Leo?
Some of us took passage for the North
on the Steamship Cherokee. Blue skies
and gentle airs made the voyage pleas
ant for a time; ladies ard children moved
about the shining decks; sentimental
novels We're left unread to burden list
less hands while dreamy eyes followed
the flight of the passing gull over the
swelling deep which had caught the col
or of the upper blue. The softer beau
ties of the night followed those of the
day ana no signs for Eden were heard
on board. But there came a change.
Hatteras was reached and the storm
came-the waves rolled their foaming
surges again the sides of the ship, the
porpoise gambolled no longer around
the bow-the heavens grew black and
the passengers grew pale. For
some hours the winds sang in
the shrouds, the sea roared
and the spray Missed on the deck as the
great ship plunged amid the waters like
bucking broncho. Then DIR. Cole
opened his cabin door and called the
captain. His teeth were set i'm agony
he clasped his waist and moaned: he
gathered strength and steadied his trem-
bling legs while in piteous means he Of
fered five thousand dollars to be set
ashore quick,
The scene changes. A train from the
Pacific coast has just left the dead level
of the broad plains and is rapidly near
ing such civilization as Texas affords. 1t
is near midnight and the passen-
gers, in various uneasy attitudes,
are all asleep. Suddenly the
movement ceases, there is little noise,
but silent figure with Winchester
rifle takes position at each door, Then
another with a cooked revolver marches
down the line of berths in the sleeping
car and emphasizes his demand for ''all
your money and be in hurry" A. j.
Beach, Chairman of our Board of County
Commissioners, sees all this and more
the night cap which his careful wife had
wrought daintily amid the shades of a
Florida orange grove wags portentously
at the way they do things IN Texas y
Let us draw the curtain on what fol-
lows, and only remember that Mr..
Beach is again among us, while rewards
are offered for these robbers. Giving or
dead" and regulators gallop recklessly
over the plain with rope and rifle ready.
Let us fold our hands owes a palmetto
fan and be content save hen the must
cal mosquito presents his little bill-it is
the only one to which we can give heed
here.